1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus for use in a FAX/OCR (Facsimile Apparatus/Optical Character Reader) system, and, more particularly, to a method for efficiently dropping out a pattern having a drop-out color and a FAX for realizing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a conventional FAX, characters and diagrams recorded on a sheet of paper are converted into image data for transmission to a destination FAX. Characters and diagrams, on the other hand, are reproduced from received image data. In a conventional OCR, characters are recognized from image data.
Recently, a FAX/OCR system which utilizes such a FAX and OCR, have been developed. In this system, image data transmitted from a terminal FAX is received by a center FAX and is then subjected to a character recognition process in a center OCR. In the terminal FAX of the system light from a light source is scanned over a data sheet to read characters recorded on the sheet and reflection light from the sheet is photoelectrically converted into image data which is transmitted. To execute the character recognition of the received image data in the OCR, a character writing frame of a data sheet, which is specified in unit of data sheet, must not influence the recognition process. In other words, such a character writing frame needs to be printed in a drop-out color which is not read by the FAX.
The light source of a FAX generally has spectrum close to the visibility of a human being. Therefore, when such a light source is used, a character writing frame must be printed in a color difficult for a person to see, thus making it difficult to write characters in the character writing frame. If clearer color is used, the character frame is undesirably read out without any drop-out when scanned, which may significantly hinder the character recognition process.